“EMILY’s List is proud to stand with Governor Kate Brown, a fighter for progressive values and policies,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List. “Kate has dedicated her entire career to public service, advocating for middle-class families, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, and women. She has expanded voting rights, overseen the passage of anti-discrimination legislation, and protected women’s access to health care. When this country faces a president and Republican Party determined to turn back the progress states such as Oregon have made, we need leaders like Kate in office now more than ever. Kate has been a trailblazer throughout her career, and as one of only two Democratic women governors in the country, she serves as an inspiration for future pro-choice Democratic women gubernatorial candidates.”

A longtime champion of middle-class Oregonians, Governor Kate Brown has spent her entire career fighting on behalf of her state’s hardworking families. A graduate of the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Kate was a lawyer fighting every day for Oregon children long before she first ran for office. She served for 17 years in the Oregon state legislature and seven as Oregon’s secretary of state. With so many important issues on the line, we need Kate as a champion for the people of Oregon more than ever.

During her time in the state legislature, Kate led the effort to pass one of the first family and medical leave laws in the country, fought for ethics reforms, and made Oregon the first state in the country to require insurance companies to cover preventive breast cancer screenings for women over 18. As the first woman in history to serve as majority leader of the Oregon state Senate, Kate championed a package of ethics reforms that The Oregonian newspaper called the “state’s most sweeping … in 34 years.” Her executive leadership has laid the groundwork for an historic addition of pro-choice Democratic women governors to be elected when 38 governors’ seats go up for grabs in the next two years.

EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have trained nearly 10,000 women to run and helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILY’s List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color - including every single Latina, African American, and Asian American Democratic congresswoman currently serving.